Pune city police have arrested three persons for allegedly stealing a line card worth Rs 54 lakh from the premises of Vodafone Idea company’s main switching centre at a building near Swargate.
Police have identified the accused persons as Bharmubirappa Pujari (39) of Katraj, Deepak Tadake (48) of Yerwada and Pritamkumar Kamal (32) of Khadakwasla.
Police said on April 4, a line card of the Vodafone Idea company was found to be missing from its main switching centre, located in Vega Center, a commercial establishment near Swargate.
Company officials then started checking the videos captured by the CCTV cameras in the premises. CCTV footage revealed a man holding a line card, walking out of the main gate of the company premises around 4 am on April 11.
In the same video, security guard Pujari was also seen moving suspiciously.
A manager at Vodafone Idea then lodged an FIR at the Swargate police station on April 16.
Cops nabbed Pujari for investigation. Further probe revealed that Pujari, along with a technician Tadake and their aide Kamal, allegedly committed theft of the line card and sold it in Delhi.
Soon, a police team went to Delhi and recovered the line card on Monday. Senior police inspector Dilip Fulpagare said that the accused had sold the Vodafone Idea company’s line card to a scrap dealer in Delhi. “Further investigation is on,” he said.
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